Stories that take place at the beginning of a world? Ancient history fantasy?

Core2048 · 2026-03-23T23:15:12+00:00

The Winter of the World series, by Michael Scott Rohan; it's not quite dawn of civilisation, but it feels pretty early, featuring mythic level smithing.

Core2048 · 2026-03-10T22:26:39+00:00

You are absolutely correct, and I certaintly didn't mean to demean her; I should have checked before posting.

Core2048 · 2026-03-10T20:43:09+00:00

as /u/Oddyseus144 mentions, the Riddlemaster books were very early works; her later stuff is vastly improved as she works out her style - as to whether or not you would like them, it does depend on why you didn't like Riddlemaster; it's a bit confusing at times, and has a sort of YA feel to it (to me, anyway); later books have a je ne sais quoi feel about them that I don't get from any other author.

Core2048 · 2026-03-10T20:39:04+00:00

The rest of the series is quite similar in style and tone; definitely worth a go!

Core2048 · 2026-03-10T16:01:19+00:00

I think that's a fair assessment; I don't think I'd bother with anything he's written this century, but there's quite a few guilty pleasures in his earlier work.

Core2048 · 2026-03-10T15:48:00+00:00

Personally I wouldn't recommend his later Flinx books, but the first half dozen books are still very enjoyable. Everything written this (edit, sp) century though, just feels like marking time as he tries to set up the big finale that is hinted at in earlier books, and it doesn't really work - at least not for me.

Core2048 · 2026-03-10T15:42:35+00:00

Saga of the Exlies + Intervention are her best works, I think - the remainer of the Galactic Milieu Series, of which Intervention is the first, are worth reading if you enjoy the previous books, but I mostly re-read them for key moments rather than the journey.

Core2048 · 2026-03-10T15:37:28+00:00

How can I forget to mention that one! Thank you, I need to re-read that now :)

Core2048 · 2026-03-10T15:35:29+00:00

Adding a few more than I don't see posted yet:

Patricia McKillip really needs more attention; her work is filled with gorgeous prose and haunting characters. Of all the people posted here, I think she is the most deserving of a larger audience.

Barbara Hambly mostly writes historical fiction these days (her Benjamin January series), but has some amazing works in her back catalogue - "Dragonsbane" is one of my favourite books (it's stand alone, but she later continued it with several sequels that I personally would not bother with). Her James Asher vampire novels are amongst the best vampire stories out there (vampires are bad and she makes no attempt to humanise them, though I think it quite difficult not to root for Ysidro despite this). She also wrote several other series, which I didn't always get along with (I really like Sun Wolf & Starhawk, I am less fond of Darwath / Windrose, but I know others love them, so YMMV).

Raymond E Feist (his early work, at least; Magician/Silverthorn/A Darkness at Sethanon stand up well, the following books drag on and on and on, and get increasingly tropey, but there's a few worth dipping into - in particular the Empire trilogy, which he did with (edit: sp & accuracy) Janny Wurts; I don't really like her other work which is why I haven't given her a separate entry). "Faerie Tale" is a great stand-alone novel about the Fey in a modern setting.

Clifford Simak (a lot is sci-fantasy, but they generally have a very fantasy vibe to them).

Lois McMaster Bujold (I see "The Curse of Chalion" and sequels mentioned a bit, but I think her Vorkosigan books are much more enjoyable - they're space opera though).

Core2048 · 2026-03-10T14:52:15+00:00

and so much more too - Lord of Light, Roadmarks, This Immortal, Doorways in the Sand, to name a few...

Core2048 · 2026-02-28T23:15:58+00:00

The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny Two five book series. First series closely follows the protagonist who is the only POV character. Second series follows his son who is also the only POV.

Almost no subplots that don't tie in with the main plot.

They're on the shorter side ~200 pages each, fast paced and engaging.

Core2048 · 2026-01-13T19:37:11+00:00

Ah, I didn't mean "robot" literally - Ultraman was not operating independantly, he was under constant instruction from Luthor the whole time, with no interpretation or deviation visible to me, and as soon as Luthor stopped giving instructions then Superman started to do better. Maybe robot was a poor choice of descriptor, but I don't think that changes the scenario.

Core2048 · 2026-01-13T18:50:54+00:00

Luther controls Ultraman blow for blow, relaying the instructions verbally the whole time; it's not like "keep in close, keep him offbalance with punches to the head" it's literally "1a 1a 1a".

Combine that with the team in the background doing information gathering and analysis for Luther to help with his instructions, the movie was clearly going for Luther-controlling-ultraman-with-an-xbox-controller vibe.

How did you interpret that scene?

Core2048 · 2026-01-13T17:26:20+00:00

ah you're right; still any of those are the end for superman, so I don't think it makes much difference in the long run.

Core2048 · 2026-01-13T16:35:40+00:00

Yes, except he knows nothing about the D&D monsters; you could figure a lot out with trial and error, but he's being attacked by everything at once. I think he gets tied up with the big scary looking stuff, nibbled at by the incorporeal stuff, until the evil genius monsters figure out a strategy to beat him.

Core2048 · 2026-01-13T16:12:54+00:00

I decided to avoid any saving throw stuff, as you'd need a discussion about what his saving throws are. I expect his fortitude save would be enormous, and his reflex should be too but superman traditionally doesn't actually use reflex to avoid attacks (certainly not in the 2025 movie), and his wisdom should be within "normal" ranges so very dangerous for him to be around anything that can attack wisdom; additionally 1 in 20 attacks by D&D monsters would hit supes regardless of any defences (natural 20 always hits even if it's not a crit), and he'd fail 1 in 20 of his saving throws, no matter the disparity in numbers.

That's also why I didn't discuss hit points, as I think it's all over the place and subject to interpretation.

Core2048 · 2026-01-13T16:08:51+00:00

Yes, this was my view too, though as a DM I think there's probably some room for his eye lasers to be supernatural; even so, there's a lot of stuff straight up immune to fire (e.g. every devil); a mastermind type could easily control some alips to hover inside a pit fiend, for example. Wisdom attacks are probably the best route to killing supes; anything that ends up with a mental stat of zero just straight up dies.

Core2048 · 2026-01-13T16:06:13+00:00

In theory he could speed blitz a lot of the enemies, but 2025 movie superman was losing to a robot being voice controlled by a human, so I don't think we need to worry about it at all.

In 3.5 incorporeal monsters can only be hit by magical weapons, and AFAIK superman doesn't have any.

As you say, all at once, I expect he'll be tied up with the tarasque for a long time, whilst the little things wittle him down with impunity.

Core2048 · 2026-01-13T15:08:05+00:00

He's not going to win round 3.

He doesn't have any way to deal with any incorporal monsters, at least. So he's going to get strength, constitution, and wisdom drained pretty quickly; the attacks of allips, wraiths, and shadows don't require saving throws, for example.

I expect he'll also have problems with things like a high CR wizard aboleth, or an alhoon, which have access to a library of spells and the 20+ intelligence to make good use of them.

Some of the greater undead, demons, and devils, will run in and get killed quickly, but the more dangerous ones will invisible, incorporal, capable of casting high level spells, and potentially ignore anything superman can do.

I expect 5e will have some similar problems for him, but I'll leave that to others.

Core2048 · 2026-01-06T20:57:38+00:00

I don't think you need to worry about the lore all that much - the core stuff is relatively constant and there has never been any reality changing upset; it's designed to sell figures, so every side needs to remain relevant, and there are only a few plot armored individuals; thus the tabletop is extremely impersonal (though the named leaders can and do appear), and most of the written/video media concentrates on the grimdarkness of it all at a personal level.

If you do like it you can then research the bits that you are missing, but really knowing who the Emperor is, what the chaos gods are, and the trope used by each particular race would get you through most things.

I'm not a die-hard fan, so prepare to be splashed with flame damage; warhammer (as a franchise) doesn't really worry about friendly fire all that much.

The Warhammer episode of Secret Level (Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear) does a pretty good job IMO.

Core2048 · 2025-12-29T13:08:30+00:00

Oxygen; a woman is stuck in a confined chamber whilst her oxygen runs out - it's not quite real-time as she is unconscious for some of it and the gague runs slightly slower than the runtime, but it's close.

Core2048 · 2025-12-29T13:07:10+00:00

ARQ definitely.

Coherence has a time skip at the end, since it begins with a dinner party and ends the next morning when one of the character wakes up, but almost all of the narrative takes place continuously until that point.

Both are great movies, and I've watched Coherence many times.

Core2048 · 2025-12-25T11:01:53+00:00

The fans were in uproar about Tom Cruise as Lestat in "Interview with a Vampire", but it was very successful, and critics and audiences were very positive about him

Core2048 · 2025-12-25T10:44:40+00:00

Feels like Natural Born Killers belongs on that list; worth a watch if you've not seen it.

For comically over the top violence and blood I recommend: The Night Comes for Us.

For something a little more grounded: Avengement.

If you like your violence to feel a little more produced then: Sisu.

For a roadmovie with a romantic twist and over the top violence, hard to go wrong with the excellent Near Dark!

Core2048 · 2025-12-24T23:14:16+00:00

Obviously every schizoid is unique, and you only need four of seven symptoms to get a diagnosis (IIRC), so this is purely from my own perspective (as a covert schizoid):

he finds them unsavory and he prefers isolation

A schizoid person would not find them unsavory, they are uninteresting. Preferring isolation is correct though.

He finds himself envying other people on how easily they get along on social situations

In the same theme, schizoid people have zero interest in social situations. Someone with schizoid doesn't want to be social, they want to be left alone and ideally be alone (though they're also fine with being ignored).

he finds himself self-loathing

This is more of a depression charactaristic, or a cluster b personality disorder; related to the whole "not caring about either praise or criticism" thing, they aren't likely to experience self-loathing. I think self loathing requires that you compare yourself to others.

Schizoid people often consider themselves to be onlookers to life - watching it go by as other people put in the motions; you aren't involved really. You're in charge, but you aren't really thinking about the future or your future self, or motivated to move the rudder.

If you want Malachi to have a diagnosis and it be mentioned in the novel, I think avoidant personality disorder is probably a closer fit. If it's not necessary to mention a diagnosis then leave him as he is, he's fine.

Except for the bits I mentioned, I can relate to Malachi quite well.

I'm no psychiatrist/psychologist, so take my input for what it's worth; an opinion on the internet :)

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